1. Technical Field
The present disclosure pertains to portable vessels for mixing and dispensing a flowable substance and, more particularly, to a hand-holdable device for storing, mixing, and dispensing a liquid material, preferably for human consumption.
2. Description of the Related Art
A variety of approaches have been taken to provide for hand operated or manual mixing of liquids or solids and liquids in a self-contained vessel. The most basic design utilizes a container with a removable lid that is shaken by hand to effectuate the mixing together of two or more liquids or a dry substance and a liquid, such as depicted in U.S. Pat. No. D510,235.
An improvement over this approach is found in U.S. Pat. No. 2,922,628 entitled Mixing Device, in which two fluted shafts are mounted inside individual coil springs. A handle at the top of the shafts is depressed to cause the shafts and springs to rotate as the springs are compressed, and the handle is biased upwards by the compressed springs when pressure is released to cause rotation of the shafts and springs in an opposite direction. Due to its size, such a design is suitable only in an open container, such as a mixing bowl. It is also mechanically complex and difficult to maintain and clean.
In U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0047231, a mixing structure, such as a wire ball, basket, or conical object with through-holes is placed inside a bottle that is manually shaken to mix a powder with a liquid, such as infant formula with water. Drawbacks of this design include inadequate mixing because the mixing structure moves with the liquid, repeated impact of the mixing structure with the container walls, scratching and otherwise damaging the container and possibly causing material to break off the mixing structure or the container or both, as well as the noise generated by the contact.